Deglaze the Skillet After Cooking the Bacon
Removing the frosting in the skillet after frying is an obvious, almost reflective part of cooking a steak or pork chop, but not so often when frying bacon. But like chops and steaks, bacon is just a piece of meat, and removing the frosting – that is, scrubbing all those tasty browned nuggets with a little liquid – will ensure you don’t leave any flavor in the pan.
I usually cook large batches of bacon in the oven , but the other day I decided to toast a few strips of sandwich and got my own ( cold ) stainless steel skillet. As the strips were nice and crunchy (and dripped onto the paper towels), I noticed that – besides the obvious fat – there was a fair amount of fudge in my skillet.
If I was making an egg sandwich, I would leave the fat in the skillet and fry it right in the oil, letting the protein stick to all the little toasted pieces. But I didn’t make an egg sandwich. I was making a bacon sandwich on white toast, so I poured the excess fat into my crockery and removed the frosting from the pan with a little vermouth by scraping those little pieces off with a wooden spoon. When the vermouth diminished, I had a sweet and salty liquid sprinkled with small pieces of burnt bacon. I give if cool, then mix with a large spoonful of mayonnaise and a little dijon. Then I spread the mixture on the bacon sandwich. Then I was happy (not for long).
Aside from excellent sandwich pastes, deglazed bacon can be saved and added to pasta sauces, soups, stews, salad dressings, or anything that requires salty, dried pork. You can also add most of the butter for a really wet sauce for the skillet . Wine and vermouth make excellent degassing liquids, but if you are in the habit of cooking bacon in a cast iron or carbon steel skillet, use something non-acidic (such as broth) to avoid spoiling the aftertaste. And, if you’re lucky enough to have a bacon baker, don’t worry; you can remove the icing on the baking sheet . (Just remember to drain off the grease first. I wouldn’t if you splashed yourself with hot grease.)